Richard Strauss

Walter Piston

Manuel de Falla

Artists

harpsichord/director

Summary

The opening concert of the Leeds International Chamber Season 2019/20: From Dawn to Dusk features a unique programme with guest Artistic Director Mahan Esfahani and Britten Sinfonia.

The first half of the concert explores the idea of tribute, with CPE Bach’s homage to his father in a late quartet whose first movement explores the name “B-A-C-H” in its melodic material. JS Bach’s own trio from TheMusical Offering represents the great master in the last few years of life when he turned his mind and pen to speculative and experimental projects in music. The instrumental excerpts from Strauss’ opera Capriccio evoke the world of the eighteenth century – a poignant reminder of the ‘lost world’ of the past in the midst of the birth of the Second World War.

In Walter Piston’s Sonatina and Manuel de Falla’s spiky and intense Concerto we witness a rebirth for that great Sleeping Beauty of instruments, the harpsichord, in the form of the first modern work for violin and harpsichord and the first modern concerto, respectively.